The empirical project „Community Education in Social Spaces“ is based on urban research findings revealing that the spatial concentration of socially disadvantaged populations in particular neighborhoods may contribute to additional disadvantaging factors and social exclusion (see Kronauer 2009; Häußermann/Kronauer 2005).

On the other hand, educational programmes of various kinds, ranges and responsibilities are offered in the communities. Whereas data on primary and secondary schools as well as higher education is rather good, the availability of sources on adult education proves to be highly problematic, inter alia, due to the following characteristics:

• pluralistic support structure,
• small proportion of public institutions,
• large proportion of privately funded activities in adult education,
• multitude of target groups, programmes and topics.

On a federal level, there is no complete overall statistical illustration of this educational sector available. As a result, the overall picture of adult education is pieced together using individual statistics. Accordingly, data availability on a municipal or even community level is by far more complicated. Except for the statistics on adult education centres, barely any data is accessible.

The term „social space orientation“ has become quite fashionable, even though there is little information about the interrelation of social space and education. An initial analysis of school data with regard to social spaces was provided by Terpoorten (2007). The significance of space for participation in adult education was studied selectively in the 1970s and 1980s. Therefore, only few studies about the analysis of adult education with regard to social spaces are available (see Klaus-Roeder 1983).

Over the last years, the significance of social space has once again become increasingly important. For instance, Schemmann (2006) studied the interrelation of social situation, character of social space and adult education activities in Bochum, analyzing participant data of the local adult education centres and five family education centres.

„Social space orientation“ has become an acknowledged concept particularly important in following fields of work: children and youth welfare service (see Hinte 2009), general youth work (see Deinet 2009), community management (see Grimm/Hinte/Litges 2004), health education (see Bestmann/Häseler/Mann 2008), work with the disabled (see Thimm/Wachtel 2002) and service for the elderly (see Kocka/Staudinger 2009).

Additionaly, communities are discovered as control options in the area of community management/regional education monitoring.  

In the project „Social Inclusion/Education in Social Spaces“ (LIQ) which was launched in October 2010, interaction and correlations of social situations/structures of social spaces as well as participation and programmes offered in adult and continuing education are analyzed.

Focus is on the following research issues:

•     programmes/venues for adult education in social spaces and participants,

•     needs uncovered by accessible programmes,

•     role of social space: does user density decrease with increasing distance?,

•     difference in programme structure depending on the community’s social space index.

Bestmann, S./Häseler, S./Mann, R. (2008): Jugendaktien gut drauf. Verbindung von Sozialraumorientierung mit der Gesundheitsförderung Jugendlicher. In: Sozial extra 32, p. 14-19 Deinet, U. (ed.) (2009): Sozialräumliche Jugendarbeit. Sozialräumliche Jugendarbeit: Grundlagen, Methoden und Praxiskonzepte. Wiesbaden Grimm, G./Hinte, W./Litges, G. (2004): Quartiersmanagement. Eine kommunale Strategie für benachteiligte Wohngebiete. Berlin Häußermann, H./Kronauer, M. (2005): Inklusion – Exklusion. In: Kessl, F. u.a. (ed.): Handbuch Sozialraum. Wiesbaden, p. 597-609 Hinte, W. (2009): Eigensinn und Lebensraum – zum Stand der Diskussion um das Fachkonzept „Sozialraumorientierung“. In: Vierteljahresschrift für Heilpädagogik und ihre Nachbargebiete (VHN), 1/2009, 78 Year. München, p. 20-33 Huntemann, H./Weiß, C. (2010): Volkshochschul-Statistik. 48th edition, year 2009. URL: http://www.die-bonn.de/doks/huntemann1001.pdf (last access: 18.01.2011) Kil, M./Schlutz, E. (2009): Veränderungen und Ausdifferenzierung im Anbieter- und Leistungsspektrum der organisierten Weiterbildung. In: Hof, Ch./Ludwig, J./Zeuner, C. (ed.): Strukturen Lebenslangen Lernens. Baltmannsweiler, p. 64-75 Klaus-Roeder, R. (1983): Sozialräumliche Strukturen und Weiterbildung. Am Beispiel der Volkshochschulen in Hessen. Baden-Baden Kocka, J./Staudinger, U. M. (2009): Gewonnene Jahre. Empfehlungen der Akademiegruppe Altern in Deutschland. Halle (Saale) Kronauer, M. (ed.) (2009): Inklusion und Weiterbildung. Reflexionen zur gesellschaftlichen Teilhabe in der Gegenwart. Bielefeld Schemmann, M. (2006): Weiterbildungsbeteiligung zwischen sozialer Lage und Raum. Die Nähe zum Bildungsort zählt. In: Weiterbildung. Zeitschrift für Grundlagen, Praxis und Trends, 5/2006, p. 28-31 Senatsverwaltung für Stadtentwicklung (2009): Monitoring Soziale Stadtentwicklung Berlin 2009. URL: http://www.stadtentwicklung.berlin.de/planen/basisdaten_stadtentwicklung/monitoring/download/2009/Broschuere_Monitoring_SozStadt2009.pdf (last access: 18.01.2011) Terpoorten, T. (2007): Geografie der Bildungschancen - Geografische Informationssysteme als Planungsinstrument für eine sozialraumorientierte Schulentwicklung. In: Die Deutsche Schule, 99, 4/2007, p. 469-481 Thimm, W./Wachtel, G. (ed.) (2002): Familien mit behinderten Kindern. Wege der Unterstützung und Impulse zur Weiterentwicklung regionaler Hilfesysteme. Weinheim/München